1. At its meeting on 15 May 2018, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the delegated powers provisions in the Islands (Scotland) Bill as amended at Stage 2 ("the Bill").ⁱi The Bill as amended at Stage 2 can be found here. The Committee submits this report to the Parliament under Rule 9.7.9 of the Standing Orders.

2. The Bill was introduced by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity, Fergus Ewing MSP, on 9 June 2017. The Bill completed Stage 2 on 28 March 2018. The Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee is the lead Committee.

3. The Bill’s purposes are to make provision for a national islands plan, to impose a duty on certain public authorities to have regard to island communities, to make provision about the electoral representation of island communities, and to establish a licensing scheme in respect of marine development adjacent to islands.

4. Amendments were made to the Bill at Stage 2. Therefore, the Scottish Government provided the Parliament with a supplementary memorandum ("SDPM") on the delegated powers provisions in the Bill.ⁱ The Supplementary Delegated Powers Memorandum can be found here.

5. The Committee previously reported on the delegated powers provision in this Bill at Stage 1 in its 49th Report, 2017 (Session 5).

6. The Committee considered each of the delegated powers provisions in the Bill as amended at Stage 2.

7. The Committee determined that it did not need to draw the Parliament's attention to the delegated powers in the following provisions:

   • section 10(2)(za) (as amended at stage 2) Guidance about section 7 duty

   • section 18(2)(b) (as amended at stage 2) Scottish island marine area licence

• Power conferred on: Scottish Ministers

• Power exercisable by: Regulations

• Revised or new power: new

• Parliamentary procedure: laid, no further procedure

Provision

8. Section 2A was added at Stage 2. It provides a definition of “islands authority” in the list of key definitions. A power is conferred in section 2A(2) to enable Ministers to amend that definition.

9. The SDPM explains that the definition was intended to be used for the purposes of certain amendments on local empowerment and the devolution of powers, also considered at Stage 2. While the amendment (29) resulting in section 2A was agreed to, the other amendments (80 and 81) were not.

10. As a result, “islands authority” is not used in the Bill as amended at Stage 2. The definition serves no purpose. The Scottish Government has undertaken to put forward an amendment to remove section 2A from the Bill at Stage 3.

• Power conferred on: Scottish Ministers

• Power exercisable by: Regulations

• Revised or new power: revised

• Parliamentary procedure: affirmative procedure

Provision

12. Section 7(3) in the Bill as introduced provided that Ministers may by regulations amend the schedule which lists the “relevant authorities” which are to be subject to the duty imposed by section 7(1), to have regard to island communities when exercising their functions. The provision allowed modification by adding or removing an entry for any person, body or office-holder.

13. The Committee recommended at Stage 1 that the power should be extended to include a power to modify an entry in the schedule, to be consistent with other similar legislation. Section 7(3) has now been amended to enable regulations to also vary the description of an entry in the schedule.